This month, NTT DATA, a global digital business and IT services provider, will open its Innovation Centers in six different locations. These regional hubs, which are located in markets where customers are highly receptive to emerging trends, will concentrate on cutting-edge technologies that have the potential to become commonplace in the next five to ten years. It’s an effort to expand NTT DATA’s customer base through collaborative research and development.
The initial organizational structure will include Strategy Headquarters, which develops the technology strategy, as well as local centers in six countries (Japan, the United States, Italy, Germany, China, and India), each of which has about 100 experts, primarily researchers, consultants, and engineers. Each center will have technology-related topics developed based on the strategy from Strategy Headquarters.
These Innovation Centers would be among the first to gather information on the cutting-edge technologies in their regions through combined research and development with top firms, as well as collaboration with colleges and startups. Such data will afterwards serve as input for the next technology strategy.
In cutting-edge fields like quantum computing and the metaverse, NTT DATA is now developing efforts for technology assessment and customer recommendations. By the conclusion of the fiscal year 2025, the Innovation Center initiative hopes to have 300 professionals working for it, giving it access to “world-class” resources for utilizing cutting-edge technology.
The Need for Technological Innovations
Social challenges, such the worldwide pandemic, conflict, climate change, etc., have recently become more complicated. At the same time, rapid technological breakthroughs have changed the way people live. All industries have embraced digitalization, which is continuing to upend business structures. So, the need for technological innovation to address social and commercial concerns is growing, according to NTT DATA. New types of technology products are finding value as the role of IT in society and business evolves.
To enhance its competitiveness amid such fierce global rivalry, NTT DATA has included in its new ‘Medium-Term Management Plan’ the strengthening of advanced technology utilization – to generate new business value, which will focus on technologies expected to emerge within the next five to ten years.
To achieve this goal, NTT DATA is launching its Innovation Center this month, to bring together innovation professionals scattered throughout the world. Its primary goals are to develop cutting-edge capabilities for utilizing cutting-edge technology and to pursue collaborative R&D with innovative clients.
Role of NTT Data’s Innovation Center
In order to create a world-class research and development team, the Innovation Center will concentrate on cutting-edge technologies in developing fields that are predicted to gain widespread use in the next five to ten years. The center will work with innovative clients that want to actively exploit cutting-edge technology at locations throughout the world to submit concepts, perform cooperative R&Ds, and develop use cases.
Strategy Headquarters:
- Create medium- to long-term technology plans for the business group, and work with regional hubs to put them into action.
- Choose the target technological themes among the many candidates gathered by local centers, and support R&D based on regional market and technology trends.
Local Centers:
- Concentrate on client suggestions and technological evaluation. Staffed with experts in R&D, prototype development, and various domains.
- Investigate the potential of cutting-edge technologies, build partnerships with globally innovative clients, and conduct joint R&Ds in accordance with the strategy of Strategy Headquarters.
- In order to evaluate cutting-edge technologies and get comprehensive data on the most prevalent technologies in each location, it is important to strengthen links with institutions and entrepreneurs.
Main Technology Themes
As of August 2022, NTT DATA’s Innovation Center will focus on the following technology themes, although themes may be added or modified as needed depending on the results of technology selection.
- Japan (NTT research lab technologies): genomes, metaverse, quantum computing
- United States (customer contract-related technologies): digital humans, smart city planning
- Italy/Germany (data processing, simulation technologies): quantum computing, metaverse
- China (hardware-related technologies): remote sensing technology (LiDAR), metaverse
- India: the center in this country will create a framework to serve as a hub for the creation of prototypes
The Future
For the upcoming fiscal year 2022, NTT DATA’s Innovation Center will expand its network for international cooperation and build up its knowledge of cutting-edge technologies with the goal of forming partnerships for collaborative R&D with forward-thinking clients. NTT DATA wants to establish partnerships for more than 50 medium- to long-term R&D projects by the year 2025.
